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Back Muscle, Does Swimming Kelp? |
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Question:
I've been off running for 5 days and have been going crazy.
Anyone tried swimming with a back injury?
Is there ANYTHING active I can be doing, or should I just
lie around in misery waiting for it to heal??
Answer:
Back injuries can be tricky and it is important to diagnose exactly what the problem
is. For example, an impact type injury can lead to compression between two vertebra
(or in the worst case, stress fractures). A common symptom of possible compression is
nerve pain in the back of the thigh (sciatica).
I am sure muscle/tendon irritation
can occur as a result of impact though it seems to me more of an indirect result from
stressful adjustments the body has to make under faulty feet structure/mechanics. Swimming or biking should work fine during rehab, running in water probably even better
(I would get an x-ray to determine if any fracture has occured).
Back injuries resulting from muscle weakness or imbalances that damage the muscle or
chronic pain from muscle overuse that irritate it should not prevent you from
running unless the injury has reached a higher grade (ie, significant damage/pain).
In spite of my lower back muscle pain and more recently pyriformis muscle irritation
I have essentially kept my running schedule but scaled back from 6 to 5 times a week,
40 to 27 miles per week, and slowed my training pace from under 6:30 to 7:30+ per mile.
The result has been a gradual reduction in pain.
I am especially careful of not
allowing the injury to progress beyond grade I by running easy (avoiding hills), warming up and stretching thouroughly (particularly the lower back and hamstrings before the run), and icing the area for at least 15 min. immediately after the run, taking also an anti-inflamatory such as Aleve or Naproxen (prescription).
I would do some back exercises to prevent future imbalances (once the injury has
for the most part healed).
Be patient during the recovery, back muscle injuries take a long time to heal.
Do not up the mileage and pace significantly, if at all until you can run essentially
pain free. It could easily take you more than a month to fully recover !
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